Graduate Studies

Graduate Council Minutes - March 5, 2012

3:00 p.m., Horrabin Hall 60/QC Campus 114

Members Present: R. Bauerly, L. Kilmer, B. Locke (Vice Chair), K. McClure (Chair), A. Mossman, J. Myers, W. Polley

Member Absent: M. Bean

Guests Present: Keith Boeckelman, Mark Boley, John Drea, Richard Gee, Kishor Kapale, Angela Lynn, Marty Maskarinec, Russ Morgan, Terry Mors, Lance Ternasky, John Wozniak

Ex-officio: N. Parsons

Others Present: G. Sullivan

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS

A. Disability Culture Day

Dr. McClure shared an invitation received by Graduate Council to attend the Spring 2012 Celebrating Disability Culture Day to be held on Wednesday, March 28 in the Multicultural Center.

B. Graduate Council Nomination and Election Procedure

Ms. Sullivan reported that nomination forms will be mailed to full members of graduate faculty in the College of Business and Technology, and the College of Fine Arts and Communication the week of March 19. Election ballots will be mailed out the week of April 2. Retiring Council members are Drs. Ron Bauerly and Matt Bean.

II.  CURRICULUM

A. Business Administration and Law Enforcement and Justice Administration

1. Request for Integrated Baccalaureate and Master’s Degree Program

a. B.S. in LEJA/MBA

The purpose of the proposed degree program is to provide high performing LEJA undergraduate students with a graduate degree that will prepare them for employment in the field of corporate security. The request identified three courses of which two may be taken as bridge courses: LEJA 509, Security: Theory and Practice; DS 435B, Applied Data Mining for Business Decisions; and ACCT 457B, Fraud Examination.

Dr. Drea indicated the MBA program can accommodate an additional fifty students without a need for new faculty or other considerations. Drs. Drea and Mors responded to questions from Council members. Dr. Drea indicated the students would be advised by the LEJA department until they are accepted into the integrated program at which time the MBA advisor would become the advisor.

Motion: To approve the request. (Myers/Bauerly).   MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

B. Physics

1. Requests to add graduate credit to 400-level courses

a. PHYS 461, Astrophysics I, 3 s.h.

b. PHYS 462, Astrophysics II, 3 s.h.

Dr. Boley presented the course requests indicating that expectations of graduate students in the courses include using scientific literature in the field, understanding the math behind the formulas used, and providing a presentation to the class as additional responsibilities apart from the undergraduates. He noted the courses were recently approved at the undergraduate level.          

Motion: To consider the requests together. (Polley/Bauerly).  MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB

Motion: To approve the requests. (Polley/Bauerly).  MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB

2. Request to change graduate program requirements

a. M.S. in Physics and Integrated B.S./M.S. in Physics

Dr. Boley explained now that PHYS 461G and 462G are approved, the department would like to add those courses to the list of directed electives in both the regular graduate program and the integrated program. Dr. Parsons indicated it would be necessary for the department to resubmit the request with the full program requirements listed on the form rather than a shortened version of only the directed electives. Dr. Boley indicated he would provide that to the School of Graduate Studies.

Motion: To approve the request. (Polley/Locke).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

C. Sociology

1. Request to add graduate credit to a 400-level course

a. ANTH 417, Primate Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, 3 s.h.

Dr. Wozniak indicated the Department of Biological Sciences had requested the Sociology program offer this course as they have many students who are interested in the content. Dr. Morgan reiterated that several College of Arts and Sciences programs would be able to use this course as elective hours.

Motion: To approve the request. (Bauerly/Polley).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

2. Request for a new graduate course

a. SOC 698, Internship Presentation, 0 s.h.

Motion: To approve the request. (Locke/Polley).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

                        3.         Request to change graduate program requirements

                                    a.         M.A. in Sociology

This request was tabled February 6, 2012 for revision to include the full program requirements.

Motion: To approve the request. (Bauerly/Locke).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

III. GRADUATE FACULTY – FULL MEMBERSHIP

A. Jonathan Day, Assistant Professor, Political Science

Motion: To approve the request. (Polley/Bauerly). MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

IV. OLD BUSINES

A. Update Report: Retaking Failed Courses

Dr. Lynn, Registrar, was present to provide information concerning the Council’s February approval of the policy change to be inclusive of grades of “D”. Thus, allowing students to repeat any credit course in which a failing grade of “D” or “F” was received. Both the failing grades and the grade earned by repeating the course would appear on the transcript and be used to calculate the student’s grade point average. Dr. Lynn reviewed data from the past three years and found that of 30,118 letter grades awarded only 70 of those were grades of “D”. She further narrowed the search and found that in a two-year period only four students repeated a course in which they earned a grade of “D”. Had the “D” grades been included in the retake policy at that time, three of the four would have earned a lower grade point average than they did. She further indicated a concern that the wait time for the programming to take place could be a long time given the AIMS programmers back-log of programming projects. Further, she questioned the need for such a policy given the small number of students who would be affected by the change.

Dr. Maskarinec reiterated his support for the policy change and noted he doesn’t understand how a programming issue could be cause to reverse the policy proposal. Dr. Lynn indicated the Registrar’s Office could investigate a manual process should this policy be implemented prior to completion of programming needs.

Dr. McClure indicated that since Dr. Bean originally made the motion to approve the proposed policy and was not in attendance at today’s meeting, then the motion could not be rescinded at this time. She asked the Council to identify their options with this issue: (1) Proceed with policy approval process by asking the Provost to review and approve the proposed change, (2) Allow Dr. Bean to move to rescind the motion to approve the proposed policy change at an upcoming meeting, or (3) Consider a policy that removes “D” grades in graduate level courses. Dr. Parsons suggested the third option and the Council asked that she and Dr. McClure draft policy language and provide benchmarking information at the next meeting.

Dr. McClure indicated the policy proposal will remain as is at this point until further discussion and consideration to the other options has been made.

B. First Draft of Higher Values in Higher Education
(Access document at: https://www.wiu.edu/aasp/university_planning/planningupdates.php/)

As co-chair of the Higher Values in Higher Education committee, Dr. Parsons provided an overview of the proposed changes to the University’s strategic plan. She indicated changes were made to the vision, mission, and goals sections as well as student recruitment strategies. Additionally, she requested that “graduate” programs were represented throughout the document in appropriate instances when only “undergraduate” programs were being referred to. She asked the Council to offer comments or suggested changes and if there were none she would request an endorsement from them. The Council offered no suggestions.

Motion: To approve the request. (Locke/Kilmer).  MOTION CARRIED 6 YES – 0 NO – 1 AB

C. Proposed Changes to the Operating Paper of the School of Graduate Studies – Full Membership in the Graduate Faculty Criteria

Dr. McClure shared graduate faculty comments with the Council noting that there were few comments submitted. She thanked those Council members who attended the open meeting with the graduate faculty on February 27. Further discussion included a concern with the citations of publications in the vitas as presented to the Council, and the suggestion that in addition the required vita format applicants submit their “regular” vita. No further action was taken. The policy change will remain as approved earlier in the year. Ms. Sullivan will mail ballots to full members of the graduate faculty later this week.

D. Sub-committee Report: Graduate Assistant Personnel Issues

Dr. Locke, serving as chair of the sub-committee, provided the Council with a report. The report included proposed wording for a guiding principle statement for graduate assistantships. As the definitions for assistantship positions will be addressed today in new business, this charge has been removed from the sub-committee. Ms. Sullivan supplied a draft of an Assistantship Personnel Incident Report.

Motion: To table the discussion due to lack of time. (Mossman/Bauerly).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

 E. Sub-committee Report: Graduate Research Day

Dr. Mossman, serving as chair of the sub-committee, provided the Council with a report on the possibility of implementing a graduate research day at WIU. She indicated that sub-committee discussions quickly identified various problems that will impede such an initiative. Issues included identifying mode of presentations, incentives to attend or present at the event, and selecting a time of the year that works for most disciplines. The sub-committee discussed the possibility of requiring Graduate Student Research and Professional Development award recipients to present at such a forum. The sub-committee would like to survey graduate programs to find out what individual departments or colleges are doing in regard to presenting research. Ms. Sullivan offered to email survey questions to graduate coordinators. This item was tabled for further discussion at an upcoming meeting.                                  

V. NEW BUSINESS

A. Sub-committee to Select Graduate Student Research and Professional Development Award Recipients 

The sub-committee will consist of Drs. Bauerly, Locke, Mossman, and Professor Myers. Ms. Sullivan provided the application packet for their review and will schedule a meeting location once the group selects a meeting date and time.

B. Proposed Changes to Assistantship Categories

Dr. Parsons presented the Graduate School’s proposal to add a new assistantship category, Teaching Support Assistant (TSA). This category is for those assistants who provide assistance and support to an academic course instructor. The stipend for this will be similar to a graduate and research assistant.

Dr. Polley suggested removal of the word “primary” in the following sentence describing teaching assistant duties: Teaching Assistants’ primary duties consist of one or more of the following types of activities. Dr. Parsons indicated the change would be made.

Motion: To approve the request. (Polley/Locke).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

C. Historical Perspective on Graduate Council Appeals

Dr. McClure presented a historical perspective on the various graduate student appeals heard by the Graduate Council between 2007 and the present date. This information was presented as information to consider. Dr. Polley noted that while the appeals were organized by academic department, sometimes those appeals for an exception to hold an assistantship position are for areas outside of the department.

No action was taken on this item.

D. Graduate Coordinator Qualifications

Dr. Parsons posed a question to the Council members asking if it is reasonable for a graduate coordinator to be an associate member of graduate faculty rather than full member. She indicated there is no explicit stipulation of such in the Operating Paper of the School of Graduate Studies.

Motion: To table items D. and E. due to lack of time. (Bauerly/Kilmer).  MOTION CARRIED 7 YES – 0 NO – 0 AB

E. Electronic Submission of Applied Projects

This item was tabled per previous motion.

VI. OTHER BUSINESS

None reported.

Meeting adjourned: 5:15 p.m.